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Controversial leadership style

Jaguar Land Rover CEO just two years in office, then sadly left.

Jaguar Land Rover has just announced that Thierry Bolloré has resigned as CEO of Jaguar Land Rover for personal reasons.

Tata Motors India, JLR's parent company, revealed in a statement filed with the Mumbai Stock Exchange that the resignation will take effect on December 31.

With immediate effect, Adrian Mardell, Jaguar Land Rover Global Director and CFO, will also serve as Interim Global CEO. The Guardian quoted a source familiar with the matter as saying that the search for Bolore's successor was still in the hands of India's Tata.

At present, Bolore resigned for "personal reasons" and there are no further details. The former boss of Renault is Jaguar Land Rover, which joined in July 2020.

During his tenure, Bollore developed radical electrification transformation strategies, such as the electrification plan of "reshaping the future". This includes transforming Jaguar into a new high-end all-electric luxury brand by 2025.

Jaguar has announced that it will not launch any new products until 2025, achieving full electrification of products.

Source: motor1.com In order to achieve the goal of creating an ultra-luxury pure electric brand, Bollore cancelled the release of the new Jaguar XJ pure electric large sedan after successively cutting two mid-sized crossover SUVs planned by Jaguar Land Rover, and the MLA platform jointly developed with Land Rover was also cancelled.

Bollore explained that the MLA platform technology was too old to meet emissions requirements, and "Jaguar will go a completely different way to high-end electrification. "

In addition to the complete transformation of the Jaguar brand, the Land Rover brand has also begun to charge. Last year, the Land Rover brand launched 2022 Range Rover Sport P400e and Discovery Sport P300e, the new Defender 110 P400e and the new Range Rover Aurora L P300e plug-in hybrids.

At present, Land Rover Range Rover, Defender and Discovery are available in plug-in hybrid or mild hybrid configurations.

By 2025, Land Rover is expected to have six all-electric models. The first all-electric Land Rover model will be launched in 2024. Within the next decade, all models under the Jaguar and Land Rover brands will have all-electric versions. At that time, about 60 per cent of Land Rover models will achieve zero emissions.

This strategy is still radical for Jaguar Land Rover, but the transformation means a lot of real money investment.

According to the plan, Jaguar Land Rover will continue to invest about £ 2.5 billion a year, focusing on R & D in electric technology, vehicle interconnection services, big data technology, etc. In terms of ADAS in particular, Jaguar Land Rover will move into the highest level of autonomous driving.

This also led to a huge loss of cash during Bollore's tenure.

Jaguar Land Rover has calculated the cost of strategic mistakes, and Bollore's decision to abandon the launch of the XJ all-electric large sedan and radical transformation have cost it £ 1.5bn, including £ 950m in non-cash writedowns and £ 530m in restructuring costs.

Jaguar Land Rover lost £ 413m in fiscal year 2020 and still lost £ 412m before tax in fiscal year 2021.

For Jaguar Land Rover right now, the funding required for the transformation will be a continuing challenge.

Especially in the case of economic downturn and chip shortage, the turbulence of management once again casts a shadow over Jaguar Land Rover's future.

"I am extremely proud of what we have achieved together at Jaguar Land Rover over the past two years," Bollore said in a statement. As a modern luxury company, the company is transforming and accelerating towards a sustainable, profitable future. "

"I would like to thank the entire team for their dedication and enthusiasm and wish the team all the best in the future. "

Controversial leadership style Like former VW CEO Diess, Thierry Bollore is a quintessential professional manager.

Bollore began his career in 1990 by joining tyre manufacturer Michelin. Since 1993, he has been the leader of the Process and Quality Center Group at the Global Heavy Truck Plant. In 1997, he moved to Japan and became an industrial assistant at Michelin's passenger car factory. In 1998, he moved to Thailand as a truck factory production manager.

In 2005, he left Michelin to join Faurecia, an international auto parts manufacturer, and was appointed Vice President of the Exhaust Systems Products Group Asia. Later, he was named vice president of global strategy, marketing, business development and research and development.

Reno was a key stop on his way to the main engine plant.

In September 2012, he joined Renault, a French multinational automaker, and was appointed executive vice president of manufacturing and supply chain one month later, and chief competition officer the following year.

With Carlos Ghosn arrested by Japanese authorities at Tokyo Airport in 2018, Bolloré became Renault's acting CEO and eventually Renault's real CEO.

As Bollore rose through the ranks, his management style became controversial.

For example, a sign of Bollore's tenure as CEO of Renault was his deteriorating relationship with Nissan, a historical industrial partner. Foreign media rated his management style as "cruel to partners and employees," which also led Renault executives and engineers to jump ship to rival companies.

On October 11,2019, Renault's board of directors held an emergency meeting and unanimously decided to fire Bolloré "with immediate effect," condemning his management style and not recognizing his hostile attitude towards Japanese industrial partner Nissan.

After leaving Renault, Bollore joined Jaguar Land Rover. According to the original plan, in 2025, the transformation strategy will begin to bear fruit, but Bollore did not wait until then, then sadly left the company.

The radical changes in the last two years have completely changed Jaguar Land Rover's previous development plan.

Source: Getty Images The departure of the leader at the start of the strategy leaves Jaguar Land Rover's future uncertain.

But according to officials, bollore will still "oversee" the company's strategy to restructure its business, such as turning jaguar into an all-electric luxury brand by 2025,"and the company is still advancing bollore's strategic goals." "

This article comes from Weixin Official Accounts: SuperEV-Lab (ID: SuperEV-Lab) by Rongxi

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